With the Internet continuing to grow at an exponential pace, web sites must fiercely compete in order to attract visitors and potential customers. According to the Netsizer counter located at http://www.netsizer.com, as of July 2000, there were more than 84 million Internet hosts worldwide. Thus, an individual user is presented with the opportunity to surf through a virtually endless collection of web sites. The problem web site marketers face is how to attract visitors, and specifically those visitors who are within a targeted demographic, to a particular web site. Clearly, the more visitors there are to a particular web site, the most attractive the site becomes to advertisers who want their products viewed by as many potential customers as possible.
In order to attract visitors, web sites offer various “content” including, for example, news, weather reports, interactive games, and chat rooms. Recently, on-line giveaways, sweepstakes, and similar promotions have also become a popular means for attracting visitors. Although such promotions may generate traffic through the web site, providing such financial incentives is expensive, and advertisers have no guarantees that the visitors frequenting the web site fit their definition of “potential customers.”
It is an object of the present invention to provide a system that incorporates a sweepstakes components that attracts Internet users to the web site incorporating the system of the present invention.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system that incorporate a sales component that serves as an alternative to on-line auctions, specifically allowing users to sell merchandise at an established selling price.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system that effectively and efficiently matches advertisers with targeted consumers specifically Internet users matching a particular demographic profile.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon a reading of the following description.